Archetype is the term Jung used to refer to universal forces affecting individuals, groups, and nations. Archetypal forces work like magnets that shape mood, outlook, experience, and behavior. “Archetypal weather” refers to patterns of these shifting forces affecting not only us as individuals, but also entire societies and nations. Since the 9/11, the archetypal weather has wrought turbulence in the U.S. and around the world, undermining and severely testing our individual consciousness as well as existing societal structures even as new structures are being formed. We experience cultural anxiety: global terrorism, political turmoil, economic instability. Drawing on Jung’s views and on archetypal astrology, we will consider both the broad historical perspective as well as the attitudes we need to develop and steps we can take to tolerate and survive the tumultuous times in which we live.

Boris Matthews, PhD, LCSW graduated from the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, and maintains a practice of analytical psychology in the Milwaukee and Madison, WI, areas. He is particularly interested in working with persons who recognize need to develop a balanced adaptation to the "outside" and to the "inside" worlds, work that involves awareness of the individual's psychological typology. Dreams, active imagination, natal and mundane astrology, and spiritual concerns are integral elements in the analytic work, the ultimate goal of which is to develop a functioning dialog with the non-ego center, the Self. He is the current Director of Training at the Institute.